


In Your Skin

by fandomscolliding



Category: Batman (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-15 16:13:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/851499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomscolliding/pseuds/fandomscolliding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim Drake lies. This is a fact universally accepted. He lies to his parents, to his friends—and when he’s feeling particularly bold—he lies to Batman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Your Skin

Tim Drake lies. This is a fact universally accepted. He lies to his parents, to his friends—and when he’s feeling particularly bold—he lies to Batman. And, here’s the most important part, he always gets away with it. The only time he gets caught in a lie was when he wants you to.   
You see, Tim Drake has this way with words. He’s probably the most well-read person Conner’s ever met (excluding Bart, of course, but Bart’s a bit of an air head and well, his intelligence is usually hidden by the jokes) and Tim’s got this way of talking that makes everyone lean in a bit to hear what he is whispering, this way of talking that makes you want to listen.   
He’s got this way with stories. When he tells them, you can’t help but believe they’re real. It’s mostly because of Tim’s face. When he lies he gets animated in a way he never does when he’s telling the truth. His eyes widen, darken with emotion, his face gets these wild expressions, and his hands flutter around like they’re painting the world of his stories. This, incidentally, is probably why he’s such a good liar. That and the way his mind can fabricate a thousand different fictions and keep track of them all. (Cassie swears he’s part machine.)  
But Tim Drake’s best lies come into being when he puts on a persona. There’s Alvin Draper, and Robin, and Boy Wonder, and a thousand different others.   
You have to understand though, that these are only partly lies. There’s still a bit of the genuine Tim Drake in all of them. Alvin Draper, for example, has Tim’s smile; the one he only shows to a handful of people. Robin’s got his determination, and Boy Wonder’s got the part of him that wants recognition. But none of them are really Tim. In fact, the more you get to know him, the more you realize that “Tim Drake” is sort of a persona unto itself.   
He’s got this way of getting under your skin. When he’s being “Tim Drake” He always knows just what to say; he can read people like books and play them like a puppeteer working with marionettes.   
Ultimately, Tim’s greatest secret is that he’s not really comfortable in his own skin. He thinks that maybe he’s a bit to pale, that he’s not quite interesting enough. So he puts on other people’s lives and wears their personalities like a tailor made suit.   
But when he’s just Tim, the Tim that Conner and Cassie and Bart and Bruce know, he has this way of getting under your skin, his shy awkwardness creeping into your heart, until one day you wake up and realize that you can’t imagine life without him.  
So yes, Tim Drake lies. He lies because he (usually) has to and because sometimes he can’t help it and because more than anything he’s afraid that if he didn’t he might realize that there’s nothing to his character but a boy made of half-truths and secrets.


End file.
